[SE] incendiary and full of light

evie The kind of flawless I wish I could be Recollection softens his smile, and Evie's does in tandem. "Knowing how frequently you undersell yourself, I'll take that as 'you went above and beyond time and again'," she half-mutters, fond and not at all truly meaning to be secretive about it. Not when it is so complimentary a feature. The conversation becomes swiftly fraught with emotions that rush through an entire array of sources, but Evie has never been one to shy away from those. Call it bravery or stupidity, but even for all her years of secrecy and defensive cruelty, Evie has never tried to deny her own feelings. "No, they shouldn't. But I try to see the positive - they gave me an example of everything not to do. Definitely not as good as providing something to replicate, but something I can still use." They wouldn't take this from her too. Not after all Evie had given them, willingly or otherwise. Truly, she doesn't mean to hurt him with the reminder. Wherever Dante is, she often includes him in her sparse but growing prayers; that is all a native Grounder knows to do. While she misses him, there is nothing she can do to force him to return, and for a moment she regrets bringing him up at all when Deimos' quiet confession touches her ears. Reaching for his hand without hesitation, Evie squeezes his palm through their gloves. "What happened wasn't your fault. We all make mistakes, what matters is our intent; I let a good woman die that same LongNight, because I prioritized keeping everyone inside safe. Because I wasn't strong enough to fight whatever might be hiding behind the door." A hurt that still burns, just as she's sure his does. Evie understands his grief, but she will spend the rest of her life ripping those doubtful thoughts out of his head like persistent weeds just to show him someone's hands cared enough to dirty themselves with the task. "And parents inevitably make mistakes too. You'll let slip that you think their drawing looks like a lumpy vegetable family, I'll insult their new hairstyle when they cut their own bangs..." Evie laughs, envisioning it. "Some mistakes are worse than others. But I think if fate ever chose to make it happen, we'd make pretty good parents overall." She avoids any other worse fates; their children moving to other lands to get away from them, rifts and ruptures, or Gods forbid anything like what happened to Hotaru. Evie was the optimist of the two of them after all.